The aim of this article is to contrast interrogative sentences in French with their English counterparts in academic discourse, using a sample of translated examples. Questions are highly frequent in French, but not in English. In French, questions involve the addressee as a fictitious anchor-point without taking his / her point of view into account. In English, interrogative sentences appear either in embedded position or as supplements. Enunciative location may only be achieved by the main clause. In this way, modal – as opposed to intersubjective – distancing is created in English.